NISAETUS PENNATUS. 



(THE BOOTED EAGLE.) 



Falco pennatus, Gra. S. N. i. p. 272 (1788); Temm. PI. Col. i. pi. 33 (1824). 



Agxiila pennata, Vig. Zool. Journ. i. p. 337 (1824); Gould, B. of Europe, i. pi. 9 (1837); 



Fritsch, Vog. Eur. tab. 5. figs. 3, 4, 5 (1858); Kelaart's Prodromus, Cat. p. 114(1852); 



Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 98; Jaub. et Barth. Rich. Orn. p. 36, 



pi. 3 (1859) ; Jerdou, B. of Ind. i. p. 03 ; Holdswortb, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 411 ; Shelley, 



B. of Egypt, p. 207 (1872) ; Legge, Str. Feath. vol. iv. p. 249 ; Dresser, B. Eur. pt. xxxii. 



(1874). 

 Butaetus pennatus, Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. xiv. p. 174 (1845). 

 Hieraetus pennatus, Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. xv. p. 7 (1840) ; Hume, llouidi Notes, i. 



p. 182 (1869). 

 Nisaetus pennatus, Sharpe, Cat. Birds, i. p. 253 (1874). 

 Le Fauconpatu, Briss. Orn. vi. App. p. 22, pi. 1 (1700). 

 The Dwarf Eagle, Sportsmen in India. 

 Bagati Jumiz, Hind., lit. "Garden Eagle ;" also (xilheri-mar, lit. "Squirrel-killer;" Oodatal 



Gedda, Tel., lit. " Squirrel Kite " (apud Jerdon). 

 Punja-Prdndu, Tarn., lit. " Field-Kite." 

 Bajaliya, Sinhalese. 



Adult male. Length to front of cere 19-5 to 21*0 inches ; culmen from cere 1*02 to 1-2 ; wing 14-5 to 15-5 ; tail 8-2 

 to 8-5; tarsus 2-3 to 2-4; mid toe 1-5 to 1-7, claw (straight) 075 to 0-8. 



Adult female. "Wing 15-0 to 1G-4 ; tail 8-5 to 9-5 ; tarsus 2-3 to 2-5 ; mid toe 1*5 to 1-7 : culmen from cere 1*15 to 1-3. 



This limit of wing is from a series of Bengal, Turkish, and Spanish examples. Mr. Mac Vicar's specimen, referred to 

 below, which was a female and an Indian-bred bird, measured 15" 7 in the wing ; a male, in my own collection. 

 purchased from Messrs. Whyte and Co., 15-2. 



Iris varying from pale brown to chestnut-brown ; cere yellow ; bill black at the tip, paliug into leaden or bluish at the 

 base, and with the gape yellow ; feet yellow ; claws black. 



Head and hind neck brownish tawny, darkest on the forehead and crown (in some paler or fulvous tawny), the shafts 

 of the feathers dark and their margins pale : back, rump, scapulars, lesser and greater secondary wing- coverts 

 dark earth-brown, with the edges of the feathers slightly paler; median wing-coverts, uppermost fcertials, and 

 some of the scapular feathers pale brownish, darkening towards the shaft of the feather ; primaries and secondaries 

 blackish brown, with obsolete bars on the light portions of the inner webs and the extreme tips whitish : upper 

 tail-coverts sandy fulvous ; tail blackish brown, lighter than the tips of the quills : traces of obsolete transverse 

 marks exiet in many specimens ; the inner webs of the lateral feathers mottled with whitish. 



I lumes of the lores and round the eye black ; cheeks, ear-coverts, and a space below them dark tawny, with a narrow 

 blackish-brown moustaehial stripe ; throat and fore neck buff, paling slightly on the whole under surface and 

 under wing into buff-white, the throat marked with central stripes concolorous with the ear-coverts ; these 

 become narrower on the chest, and gradually change into shaft-lines on the breast and flanks and secondary under 

 wing-coverts ; primary under coverts spotted with dark brown. The amount of striation on the under surface 

 varies much, and some examples have the stripes confluent across the throat. 



Dark form. The plumage above has the same character as the foregoing, but is much darker throughout both as regards 

 body and the wings and tail ; the light portions of the wing-coverts and tail are very much darker than in the 



